


A New Glimpse of Delvian Life at the Start of Peacekeeper Influence Comes From an Unexpected Source: Spouse-Killer and Tenth-Level Pau’u Zotoh Zhaan

by deepcreek



Category: Farscape
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Character Study, Gen, Gender Identity, Genderfluid Character, Other, Politics, Pre-Canon, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 05:18:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11373366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepcreek/pseuds/deepcreek
Summary: Excerpted from Mr. Stark’s impressionistic biography “Zotoh Zhaan: A Life of the Mind,” and translated into English with a bias towards approximation and explication of culturally specific concepts, this text is presented in our publication without claim to its veracity, and with a note that the Peacekeeper-aligned Delvian Seek contests its publication as a nonfiction work.





	A New Glimpse of Delvian Life at the Start of Peacekeeper Influence Comes From an Unexpected Source: Spouse-Killer and Tenth-Level Pau’u Zotoh Zhaan

The mornings are always beautiful here, as they should be when one is staying in a Counselor’s leisure home. Zhaan rolls over to throw off the bedsheet, exposing more body surface to the sunbeams filtering through the valley’s mist. The Delvian sighs, feeling the raw pleasure of photosynthesis, and meditates absentmindedly on consumption and dissipation.

The console in the corner chimes insistently. Damn Bitaal– nothing is in session today, yet the message is marked priority-one urgent. With something between a sigh and a groan, Zhaan flicks it open.

"Good morning, Dearest! I hope you slept well. There’s an off-world diplomat wanting to speak to a Delvian woman and get a view of daily life around the capital (his words, not mine!), and I know you’re not even budding yet but you’re the closest we have with the requisite clearance. Are you up for a bit of intercultural exchange today?"

After his signature mark, there’s a ps. "I depilated this morning but I’m already itchy at work! Pretty soon I’ll have to buy a scraper.. I’m so blessed to have you and still can’t believe we’re doing this! See you tonight if not sooner, sweet– and no pressure on the diplomat, I mean it this time."

Zhaan closes the message with an eye-roll. Of course this morning interruption has nothing to do with the Anarchist faction’s ongoing protest of the differential access to visitors the Conservatives have been receiving. It’s certainly not a ploy testing any conflicting loyalties between partner and party. And Bitaal surely isn’t composing a follow-up “just checking in” message as the Anarchists’ whip considers the options.

It isn’t just chosen reproductive role that gave Bitaal this idea– the buds developing on Zhaan’s chest are shaped much like a single pair of mammalian breasts, and the tissue deposits building up for the rapid growth of future seedpods distribute on the thighs and lower back, allowing an expectant Delvian continued mobility and balance. The off-worlder must be a mammal, then, and one who consults secondary-sex signifiers as gender markers. A barbarian.

"Very well, I’ll be ‘she’ for a day. Send me the relevant information." Zhaan’s signature mark is as abbreviated as the message itself– no sense concealing such culturally normal discomfort.

The reply comes almost immediately, a profile on someone named Bantar Koln (so many hard sounds!). His (!) schedule for the day ahead, and a decidedly Conservative set of suggestions on places to visit, things to see, and locations at which to dine.

She forwards everything to her administrative assistant. Doraab responds as Zhaan is stepping out of the mister, interrupting her internal debate on whether a seeding robe, certainly feminine to most alien eyes, might be criticized by the cheap magazines which treat her personal life like a public-access drama.

Zhaan rattles off her voice command and Doraab tells her the seeding robe with warm-weather outing clothes layered would be best. “It’s the assemblage that seems best to fit the offworlder’s expectations.” Her assistant, normally fast and factual with information, pauses uncharacteristically. Zhaan thinks she sees the issue.

“What sort of offworlder is he, dear?”

Doraab wrinkles his forehead in polite disdain at the prounoun. “I can’t find any information on this one, Counselor. If Bitaal brought thi- him in, it was not through channels on official record.”

Zhaan returns her employee’s frown. “Have you tried a name analysis?”

“The computers are suggesting a Peacekeeper affiliation, but nothing specific.”

She shakes her head. Her lover’s party isn’t called Conservative for nothing, but consorting with Peacekeeper allies is a little risky, even in an unofficial capacity. “Would you please register all of our meetings as investigative with the Council?”

They move on to dining plans and preferred walking routes, carefully balancing their guest’s presumed tastes with the public eye, Zhaan’s needs as an expectant, the Conservative bloc, the Anarchists’ preferences, policy regulations…

Zhaan is almost relieved to step outside, where the fabric of her wrap re-distributes sunlight’s rays in a reassuring embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to make this "Zhaan talks to a Peacekeeper and is horrified and realizes the end of a relationship and a way of life is near" but instead this other thing happened.
> 
> Q: What about the Delvian sect Zhaan encounters in s2?
> 
> A: Those Delvians are reproducing aggressively, which would certainly fit their overall characterization.
> 
> Q: Why does Zhaan gender Bitaal ‘he’ when discussing him?
> 
> A: She is memorializing a former lover and acknowledging that she deprived him of a chance to be father to her children.
> 
> Q: Why doesn’t Zhaan revert to a neutral body in canon?
> 
> A: Trauma, semiconscious choice, and Peacekeeper ignorance about Delvian nutritional needs. Your fave blue plant is being fed way too much estrogen.


End file.
